


Living With Poison

by WastingPixies



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Assassin Harry Potter, Contract killing, F/F, Female Harry Potter, Good Severus Snape, Magecraft, Magical school, Servants, Slytherin Harry, Training
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-16 19:29:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10577991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WastingPixies/pseuds/WastingPixies
Summary: When a fire nearly claims Alice Potters life, she doesn't know how much she changes her life. Now with her only friend being that of an assassin from times long past, she enters the wizarding world a very different girl. Knifes and poison will follow in the girls footsteps, and the wizarding world will be changed as the next Old Man of the Mountain joins them on her blood stained journey.





	1. The Path Diverges

Magic can be weird.

Whether it be the mages drawing magical energies from the world, elves convincing the spirits of the world to do their will, a net of magical fibers woven together to allow them greater flexibility in magic, or hardened circuits that could channel great amounts of magic, there are so many ways that magic exists within the multiverse that it would be impossible to list them all. Though that would partly be due to how deceiving the multiverse is, as it's more along the lines of an omniverse.

If you wish for proof of that see Zelretch's speech on the matter.

So in a single world, on the "edge" of two different types of universes, is where the fate of a single entity is changed by a single event. Perhaps is was due to the damaged nature of their soul or the near nonexistent wards that were supposed to protect the home or perhaps it was something else, but this one child would be so different from her other counterparts.

Locked in the cupboard under the stairs of her home, was Alice Hazel Potter, a child that had to suffer far more than others her age. Her magical core, woven from strands of magic was unlike many of her magical peers, not that she knew this fact. The strands of magic that allowed for her magic to be so flexible was not as tightly knitted together as others, this made it so that a couple of them had come free and hardened. This formed what would be called a magical circuit, something that could withstand much more power going through it, but lost its flexibility.

She would find magic to be difficult to master, but all of her spells would be stronger, having more magical energy flowing through them. This would be the change that let her live through the night that was coming up, as it would be that night that her life would change forever.

It may have been a number of things that caused that catastrophe that would change her life forever, but on that night that she was locked in the cupboard under the stairs, a fire would be lit. It may have started out as a small flicker of flames, but it soon found fuel around itself, and soon it would spread throughout the home.

So it was in that night while banging on the walls of her cupboard that her life would change, as ash fell into place guided by magics that had never been seen in that world, though existed between worlds. It was that night when she would call out for a hero that an answer would come to her, though it would not come as fast as she would have wished.

The stairs would collapse down on her, burning much of her back and covering the left side of her body with scars that she would bear for a long time to come. It was only then when she was desperate enough to force prana through her circuits, forcing them open in ways that they had not been before, did the ritual have enough magic to call to her a hero of her desire.

***

The women's eyes opened as she was summoned, she could feel the bond between her and her master that kept her there.

But that had not been her focus, for as soon as she was summoned she could feel the licks of flames and the heat that pressed against her dusky skin. It would take far more than a normal flame to hurt her, even if she was from the weakest class of servants.

It didn't even take a second for her to launch herself in the direction of her master, hunting for the one that would keep her alive. She didn't care as she passed the other three, uncaring as she bumped into them in here hurry to retrieve her master, who she could hear screaming in pain.

Finding the small cupboard, she effortlessly tore its door off. She hesitated for a fraction of a moment as she looked at the child, surprised that someone so young could carry her. That fraction of a second may have been too long, for the child through themselves into her arm, curling up into her and crying. That action may have been a death sentence for the child, and if it was then the women would be dealing with a lot of problems in the future.

But she didn't think much about it, instead running through the front doors, setting the child down. She looked back just in time to see some of the front of the building collapse on the corpses of the people she had run into on the way in. She looked to the girl that was even now clinging onto her, ignoring the fact that doing so should be killing the girl.

The women looked at the girl, confused, before speaking for the first time.

"I am Servant Assassin, I ask you, are you my Master?"

***

Alice fell on her back as she was once again knocked back, having lost her footing. She looked at Assassin, who had become a constant companion since the fire.

The older women had dusky skin and looked to be in her late teens, with purple hair and a white jawless skull mask that covers the top half of her face. She had what could best be described as a one piece backless bathing suit that was split down the middle, showing her stomach and going between her breasts. She also had a pair of legging that had wrappings around her biceps and ankles. Though the leggings supported the arches of her feet the rest of them are left bare. To finish of her rather odd outfit she had a set of fingerless gloves that go to her elbow.

It gave her an appearance that would stand out, yet somehow she managed to stay hidden despite all that.

The fire was a sore spot for Alice, something that she didn't like to think about, how it left so many scars down her body. She had grown here hair out so that only the right side of her face was visible, she would always wear long-sleeved shirts, pants, and gloves.

It had been the best she could do to help calm down the comments that were thrown her way, but even then the children at her school and the orphanage would still try and tease her about her scars. Sure, now that she had disfiguring scars the teachers would try and do something about the kids, but it was too little to late.

Alice didn't think much of teachers or the matrons at the orphanage. She had been at the mercy of her family, of her cousins bullies for years, and they never cared in the slightest. It was only when she had summoned the spirit of an assassin, of all things, that she found that people would give a damn about her.

Though even with all the kids still teasing her about her looks, she never felt it would be worth asking assassin to kill them. Sure, it would be easy, but it simply wasn't worth the time. They could be spending that time together, so they could prepare for whatever would come up next.

Powerful magics were involved in the summoning, magics that others proved that there was in fact magic, despite what her uncle had told her back when he was alive. Neither Alice nor Assassin thought that everything would end at the summoning, people would want either the contract or to learn how she did it.

So they trained, Assassin didn't want to loose her. The younger of the two was the only person that was able to touch her without dying, she didn't know how long she had desired to have that. Her body was toxic, every membrane and cell in her body was simply poison. Now that she had someone who could do something that she hadn't had for as long as she could remember, she was going to protect that girl with everything that she had.

She knew that it was possessive, but she didn't really care all that much. Her Noble Phantasm was something of a curse, and for the first time she found someone who could shrug it off.

Zabaniya: Delusional Poison Body. Her body resists all sorts of poisons and, at the same time, was utterly toxic. Her nails, her skin, the fluids that flow through her body, all of them were made entirely of something that made of her body poisonous to the touch and even the sweet aroma that emanates from her is poison in and of itself. She uses to embracing her victims and kissing them on the lips, using the poison to fry their brains in a few seconds, but any form of contact with her is fatal, no matter how small. Except for with the small girl in front of her.

Alice didn't care that her body was poison, saying that she felt that most people around her were more toxic to the mind then Assassin was to the body. Alice was distant with anyone other than Assassin, having lost her trust in people after all that she had to deal with. A sad state of affairs, considering that at this time the young girl was barely eight years of age.

So whenever she wasn't at school or the orphanage, she would be out with Assassin, training and learning. Even though Assassin had lived long ago, she had a lot she could teach Alice. They spent time training in knife fighting, which they had been doing earlier, along with stealth training and the basics of some sciences like chemistry and biology.

Granted that chemistry was very toxic chemistry and the biology was largely on where to hit a human to kill them, but Alice just seemed to shrug off anything remotely poisonous so they didn't actually have much to worry on that front.

Assassin had also gotten into teaching Alice the serious languages that she had known. As one of the many that had held the name of Hassan-i-Sabbah, she had learned a lot of languages. So while they were with everyone else she would teach him through the telepathic connection that they had. And while she was no prodigy, she was picking up on everything that she was learning quickly.

Hell, she had started to experiment with her magic, and had developed her own spell. It was simple, something she simply called Reinforcement. The principle was simple, she would use her magic to make whatever the spell was used on better on the conceptual level to become better. Though she had to have a though understanding of how something works, so the biology she was learning was actually useful for that.

Her current desire was to be able to push her body to match Assassin's. When looking at Assassin's parameters, she had some good stats. Well, considering that Assassin's are supposed to be one of the weakest classes in the physical nature she thinks that it's good states. The spirit was sporting D rank Strength and Endurance, C rank Mana and Noble Phantasm, A rank Luck, and A+ rank Agility.

Taking into account that E was the lowest rank, and that was apparently supposed to be ten times human capability, that means that she was twenty times stronger and tougher than a human, and one hundred times faster. So it wasn't any surprise that she hadn't been able to come even close to getting to the point of matching her.

Granted Alice found it actually kind of odd that some of this information was stuff she knew. She didn't even know where it came from, even Assassin couldn't give an answer as she didn't know. She knew about the Holy Grail and the system that it was used to summon the servants, but she said that it was like the knowledge was incomplete.

Like part way through when some information was to be given to her, it wasn't, though instead some of that knowledge seemed to be transferred over to Alice.

***

With a flash of light, Alice smirked at the white blade that appeared in her hand, it was shaped a lot like kunai though the handle was kind of like an infinity sign.

Unfortanently the blade would be nowhere near the level of the original, but it was a proof of concept more than anything else. She felt Assassin wrap an arm around her, and she could feel the masked girl hold her close.

"Good job Alice, now you'll always be armed."

Alice smiled at her, slightly blushing under the praise, something she still not used to. "Thanks! It's still not as good as yours though."

Proving her point, Alice hit the blade on the side of the turned over tree that they were sitting on. When the blade hit the trunk it had tried to stand up to the force but shattered near instantly.

"Perhaps, but you'll get better."

Alice smiled, before leaning into the other girl, glad to be away from everyone else. She had been approaching the age of nine, and she had recently been interviewed by a newsman. Apparently her uncles old business had gone under, understandable since he was one of the big directors of the company and had been holding it together for a few years when he died. The man had wanted to interview her, as she was the only person to survive the fire.

It had been frustrating, while she didn't want to relive the pain that was caused by the event she also knew that it had lead to her meeting Assassin, and that had been the best thing to ever happen to her as far as she was concerned.

So, in the end, she had given a few comments on the entire thing but didn't want to talk too much about it. Thankfully the man seemed to have understood and let her go with what little she gave him.

Having finally escaped from the people that she was always trapped around she had found herself once more in the little forest not too far from the orphanage, practicing her magic. She could now push her body to maybe five times what she should be considering her small size and young age, but even that wasn't even to the weakest of Servants at any stat being E.

Though to try and get better she had ended up developing another spell, one that she called Analysis. It would give her a basic blueprint of the object that she was analyzing, though she was getting better at it with every try. She was even starting to get a rough idea of exactly what the item is made of when using the spell. Granted, it was to the point of using it on a pot and knowing what some of the materials were, but it was something.

That spell had lead into another idea that she had, to turn her magic into something else, for example, the knife. It was one of Assassin's, so she had seen and handled it a great number of times, analyzing it every time that she used it and getting better and better grasp of the blade. It was because of this that she was able to create the blade, though she would need to put work into making it useful.

Granted, since that was the first time she had tried to use Projection, as she was calling it, on a weapon she thought that it was a breakthrough.

Still, even with all the progress that she had made, it was the moments like these, where she was able to just relax some with Assassin that she enjoyed the most.

She wished that she could have moments like this all the time.


	2. A Mystical Visitor

"You have a visitor Ms. Potter."

Alice looked to see the matron of the orphanage at the door, with a tall man in a brown long coat standing next to her. The man walked into the room, as the matron closed the door and probably walked off.

Alice looked at him with her only visible eye, thinking on why he was here. Likely he had heard about her from the paper, but she wasn't sure for certain. It was by far the most likely explanation, as she tended to not be around when people visit the building. She wasn't really interested in getting adopted, so never put the foot forward to make good impressions even when she was there.

"Good morning Ms. Pottter, my name is Roparzh Gwenaël. I'd like to give you my condolence for the loss of your family." Alice nodded, having grown used to that. Though she didn't expect the following up statement. "It's really a shame that the family of our hero died in an accident like that."

"Our hero?" She slightly tilted her head, trying to think of what the hell he had been talking about. Her voice was also rather hoarse, as she tended to only speak to Assassin her voice didn't get much use. He looked at her slightly confused.

"You don't know?" He staired at her for a few seconds, his face looking to be deep in thought. "Tell me, what do you know of magic?"

Alice was so surprised she was unable to stop herself from stiffening, having not expected that. Assassin, for her part, was now behind the man and ready to materialize and strike if he made a single wrong move.

"Magic saved me from the fire, that's all I know." He would have noticed her stiffening, so she would give that and nothing else. She saw him raise an eyebrow, before speaking.

"Accidental magic then? Given what I read I'm not all that surprised. Anyways, I'm guessing that means that you don't know of the larger wizarding world or your status as a hero."

"No, I don't."

The man leaned back in the seat that he had taken, running a hand over his face. He sat there like that for a few moments, before simply shaking his head.

"Fuck it, you deserve to know. I don't have a clue what that old man was thinking putting you somewhere that you wouldn't know, but he's wrong. So I guess that means it falls to me to tell you. You see, it all starts with the last Dark Lord, a nut job terrorist who was crusading a racist cause. Most people call him things like 'You-Know-Who', 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named', and other such bull. He called himself Voldemort, but I honestly don't know if that's his real name." He leaned forward in his seat, sitting a little closer to the girl who had his full attention.

"By the way, don't use his name around others, they tend to panic when they hear it. Anyways, one thing that you need to understand is that the wizarding world has three different types of blood states. There are the muggle-borns like myself, we have no magical ancestry. Their of the Half-bloods, who have at least one magical grandparent. Lastly, their are the Pure-bloods, who have all magical grandparents. Our most recent Dark Lord was trying to champion the Purest cause, who believed that only Pure-bloods have the right to exist."

"The man sounds like a fool, I've killed a number of people who have tried to do the same." Assassin's words entered Alice's mind, speaking over their link.

"Yeah, a society like that wouldn't survive in the long run."

"So around twenty years ago now the dark lord had started to gather followers, the reasons for the people joining would probably very, but they still joined him. It was a dangerous time, people were paranoid and didn't know who they could trust. Friends turning on one another simply because they thought that they might be followers of the dark lord. It was what the dark lord wanted, and it was damn effective, he nearly took over the wizarding Britain. Anyone who stood up to him was killed, with there being few places left that could be considered safe." He sighed before continuing.

"For some reason after being some pretty big people in the fight against Voldemort, your parents went into hiding. The common theory is that it was due to your mother being pregnant with you, though we don't know. Then, eight years ago, he showed up at the village they were living at. He went to your house and killed your parents. The thing that made you so famous, was that supposedly he then tried to kill you but got himself killed in the process."

The man leaned back a little, before continuing. "Thing that's so baffling about this entire thing, is that people believe that he used the Killing Curse. The spell is one of his most commonly used spells, but it doesn't leave a mark. The outcome of his visit was, the famous lighting bolt shaped scar that's suppose to be on your forehead, him in a pile of ash, and the roof of the building caved in. None of it really adds up to being the Killing Curse in my mind, possibly some other spell but I really don't know." He shrugged at that. "People claim that you're responsible for the death of the dark lord."

"That sounds insane, how could I ever be responsible for that?" Alice shook her head, before letting glaring out the window. "So they all love me, but they can't be bothered to actually raise me as their own." She looked back at him and rested the unscarred side of her face against a hand. "I dought that anyone will be able to recognize my scar anymore."

The man winced at that. "I think that the man responsible for where you were placed didn't want you to get a big head. Being raised with such fame likely wouldn't be good for your ego."

"He's right, you likely would have been an arrogant child if you were razed by wizards."

"Plus I would have never meet you."

Roparzh watched Alice before he made up his mind. "If you have the time, I could show you, Diagon Alley. It's one of the major shopping districts in Britain, and I could show you to Gringotts, the wizarding bank, they could possibly sort something out for you to live more comfortably in the wizarding world."

Alice thought about it, and after a discussion, with Assassin, they decided that it would be a good idea. Getting out of the orphanage would let them do as they wanted, and it would allow Assassin some more space to move around. With it decided on the two of them left the building, though they did get some looks on the way out. Alice was known throughout the orphanage for her anti-social behavior and how little she tried to be friendly with people.

Roparzh had told Alice to take his arm once they were out of sight of everyone, Assassin placing a hand on her shoulder as she did so.

"By the way, this isn't going to be all that pleasant." The next thing Alice knew she Roparzh's arm twist away from her and redoubled her grip: the next thing she knew everything went black and she felt as though she was being sucked through a straw.

As soon as it was over she was on her knees, breathing in rough breaths as she tried to get her baring back. She took a few seconds to shake off the feeling the had overcome her, before glaring at the man.

"Told you it wasn't going to be pleasant."

She just redoubled her glare, which only made him chuckle. Though she did reassure Assassin that she was ok, as the spirit had obviously been worried about her.

"Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron, the main entrance to Diagon Alley."

Alice looked at the building. It was an absolutely tiny, worn down looking pub. The passerby on the street didn't look at it, hell they didn't seem to be reacting to it the two people that looked at it. Everyone's eyes seemed to just slide over it, going from one side to the other. Roparzh confirmed that there was magic that kept it hidden from muggles, what they called people without magic. One of the effects was that you could be right in front of the building, and if you had magic you wouldn't be seen either.

Heading inside Alice found that the place was rather dark and shabby, with a few people sitting about with tiny glasses that they were drinking out of. A few people glanced their way, but nothing came from it, other than some mutterings of 'mudblood' from a man in the corner.

Noting the word down they walked through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, with nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds around. The girls guide pulled out a small stick, before explaining that the passageway was opened by pouring magic into a specific brick. The one that he touched shook for a moment before a small hole appeared. Soon they were faced with an archway that would fit people far larger than themselves, that lead out into a cobbled stone street that would twist and turn.

Stepping through harry noticed that the archway shrunk back into the wall when they passed, reforming into the wall. Alice looked around, though she kept her magic at the ready. While this was amazing, she wouldn't let it overcome her. The likelihood of anyone recognizing her was low, but she wouldn't discount it. Given what she had been told there was plenty of reason to be caution, even more reason for her to train.

There were a lot of sights to take in, whether it be how the sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside a nearby shop, or the way that boys had been gathered round a shop staring at a broom, there were so many things to look at. Eventually, they reached a snowy-white building which towered over the surrounding shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold were these odd looking beings that were about Alice's height, with swarthy faces and pointed beards.

"This is Gringotts Alice, and I'm sure they can help you. I will leave you in their more than capable hands. I must be off, I have work you see. Perhaps we will meet again in the future."

With that the man turned and left, leaving Alice alone. The girl went inside, though did give the goblins a nod on her way through the doors, where she came face to face with another set of doors. This time they were silver, with words engraved upon them.

Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn,  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there.

A pair of goblins bowed the two through the silver doors, leading into a vast marble hall with maybe a hundred goblins sitting on high stools behind a long counter.

Not knowing where to go and not seeing any signs, Alice looked around and found a goblin that looked to be free. Walking up he stood before him and waited for the goblin to finish whatever it was that he was writing in its ledger and pay some attention to her.

She waited for about five minutes before the goblin finished. Once done, the goblin looked up and regarded Alice curiously. "Patient, for a human I suppose. Well, what do you want?" The goblin asked sharply, eyeing Alice carefully and noting that she didn't jump at his harsh tone.

"My name is Alice Patter, I was told that Gringotts could help sort out my affairs regarding the wizarding world," Alice spoke to the goblin, looking closely at it. Her eyes flickered down to the name plaque in front of the goblin. "Do you think you could help me with that, Mister Sharpclaw?"

The goblin gave Alice another look. "Most that claim to be Alice Potter have her scar on their foreheads. Tell me, are you going to shove such a thing in my face?" The goblin asked. He didn't fail to notice the flicker of annoyance on the girls face.

"My scars are my own, the wizarding world doesn't know what I actually look like." The goblin continued to look at the girl, before speaking once again.

  
"Come this way, client." He then got down from his stool and lead Alice through a set of double doors. Unlike the other areas, this hallway was made from stone instead of marble. The passageway was also rather narrow and was lit by flickering torches.

Eventually, they entered some sort of record room, where the goblin went off and retrieved some stone tablet of some kind. Alice gave a curious look, not knowing what it was, but she could see the name 'POTTER' in capitals at the top of it. She looked to the goblin and asked what she was supposed to do.

"Splash your blood on this. If you are part of the Potter family, the main branch at least, it'll let us know." The goblin then held a dagger out to Alice, who Analyzed it to make sure it was clean, before cutting her palm and lettering the blood drip onto the tablet.

The goblin took the tablet back, and he seemed to find whatever he was looking for, as he nodded his head, before returning the tablet to wherever he'd retrieved it from. He then led Alice back through the stone passageways and elsewhere, eventually ending up in an office of some sort.

Alice asked what was up with the blood and the goblin replied. "Blood is important in magic, there _are_  reasons that some wizarding families place so much emphasis on it. Of course, the Purity block probably doesn't even know  _why_  their cause was started in the first place. Added to that, most blood magic is illegal, and the idiots in power are sailing a ship without a sail." There was a definite tone of contempt in the goblin's voice.

"So, I do have money here?" Alice asked.

The goblin rolled his eyes. "You have a trust fund that will be refilled annually from the family vault. It only activated recently." Alice paused as she thought about what the goblin said.

"Trust vault? Family vault? When will I be able to access the family vault?" She asked.

"Your trust vault will keep refilling itself annually, with the last refill the day before you turn seventeen. The family vault can only be accessed by the head of the family and those with permission from him or her. Wizards come of age at seventeen in this world, regardless of what age the muggles have it set at. Therefore, an heir will become a head of a family at seventeen, and thus allowed into the family vault." The goblin replied.

"So, I am the Heir for House Potter then?" Alice wondered aloud.

The goblin seemed about to say something, but he bit his tongue and growled out. "The heir of a family becomes the head when they turn seventeen if there is no one currently in that position." Something about that made Alice stop for a moment, Assassin for her part was giving the goblin a calculating look.

"Am I the Heir of House Potter?" Alice asked again, more directly this time.

The goblin repeated what had said before. "You're avoiding the question," Alice mumbled while Assassin thought over what had been said. "My parents are dead, aren't they? That means that any will they had made should have been enacted. If someone but their child was the head of House, it would be in there, right?"

An expression that Alice couldn't describe crossed the goblin's face as he spoke. "Wills can only be read either with their creator's permission or when the subject of a will is deceased." That made Alice stop. If she was being denied access to her parents' will, then there was only one real reason for that.

"As a member of House Potter, am I allowed to ask who my head of House is?" The goblin nodded. "Am I also allowed to ask who the heir is?" Again another nod. "Then, can you tell me who my head of House is and who the heir is?" another nod and Alice rethought her question. "Who is the head of House Potter? Who is the Heir of House Potter?"

"The current head of House Potter is James Charlus Potter and the current Heir is Harry James Potter." The goblin replied.

Alice's mind went blank as she slumped to the floor. Her family was live, she had a living father and brother. Did that mean that her mother was alive too? Did they not want her? Was that why she was left with the Dursleys? Tears began to appear in the corners of Alice's eyes, sadness, and rage flowing through her. The goblin shifted awkwardly, not really sure what to do.

Assassin had been trying to reach Alice through to her from there telepathy, so deciding that if the goblin got in the way she could dispose of him, she decided to materialize next to her and try and comfort her that way. Sharpclaw jumped when the young women with purple hair suddenly appeared but calmed down when she did nothing but hug Alice.

Sharpclaw looked on in interest as Alice Potter, the supposed Girl-Who-Lived, clung tightly to this unknown masked women, drawing comfort from her presence. He managed to hold back a gasp as the curtain of hair that had hidden the left side of her face was brushed aside by Assassin's shoulder, revealing the burn scars, a part of him remembering what Alice had said about her scars.

"Mister Sharpclaw," Assassin spoke up after a moment. "What is the current status of James Potter and his wife?" She asked, her voice promising a lot of pain if she found the man. Sharpclaw knew that he really shouldn't have revealed that the Potters were still alive, but apart from client confidentiality, the goblins were also honest, and Alice _did_  technically have the right to know the answer to her questions.

He sighed. "To the Wizarding World as a whole, James and Lily Potter are classified as deceased with a single child. As for what Gringotts knows, they are currently alive with three children. Alice Potters older twin brother, Harry, Alice Potter herself, and a girl named Rose. I'm afraid that I can't reveal any more information than that due to client confidentiality and that only a member of House Potter is allowed to request that much information."

"Why did they throw me out?" Alice muttered quietly, her hoarse voice becoming even more pronounced and noticeable. Assassin gave another look, while she tightened her grip on Alice.

"Mister Sharpclaw, who has access to Alice's funds and how much does Alice possess?" She asked. When Sharpclaw looked to Alice, she nodded, giving permission for him to answer Assassin's question.

"Ms. Potter possesses many thousands of Galleons, enough to pay his way through Hogwarts, buy his supplies and essentially live off for about two decades. As for who has control of that money, that would be Ms. Potter herself, as well as her parents as they set the vault up in the first place." Assassin looked back to Alice.

"You said that it refills every year from the family vault, correct?" Sharpclaw nodded. "Can Alice transfer the money from her trust vault into a separate one that only she and those she allows can access?" A predatory smile spread across Sharpclaw's face.

"For the right price, yes, she can. It is also possible to set up an annual automatic transfer too. Is Ms. Potter thinking about doing such a thing." A dark looked had entered Alice's eyes, one that Sharpclaw most definitely approved of. It would seem that whatever the Potters were planning would not be as smooth sailing as they had intended it to be.

After a short conversation with Assassin, so they had a name for her to use on the papers, Alice spoke up. "Mister Sharpclaw, could I trouble you to facilitate such a transfer and allow access to the vault to be limited to myself and Mary here? Also, can I trust you to manage my resources and invest it in ventures and businesses that would bring me profit?"

Sharplaw raised an eyebrow, " You would trust a goblin to do business in your name?" He asked.

Alice thought about it. "You are a bank worker, aren't you? That means that profit is important to you. I don't know about goblin culture in general, but having money of your own is probably a good thing. How about this then. You receive five percent of any profits I make, that should give you an incentive to get me more money, don't you think?"

Sharpclaw chuckled. "It would seem that today is my lucky day, Ms. Potter. Normally, such a task is reserved for account managers, of which I am not one." He held out one hand towards Alice and Alice stood up, and after Analyzing her body to make sure no poison was on her hand, reached out to shake hands with the goblin. "Let us get this agreement done, for mutual profit."

Sharpclaw then decided to say something else, glancing at Assassin, or Mary as she was. "As an aside, because the wizarding world has James and Lily Potter listed as deceased, and they would hardly listen to goblins say otherwise, you are currently without a magical guardian."

Mary picked up on what Sharpclaw was saying instantly. "What qualifies you for magical guardianship?" She asked lightly, Alice also looking at them curiously.

"You need to be of age, have the agreement of the current magical guardians of your ward, actually be magical yourself and not have a registered conviction against you in the Wizarding World. The muggle world, to wizards, doesn't matter. You could be a criminal of the worst kind, but as long as it's 'only' muggles, wizards won't care." Sharpclaw replied.

Alice looked up to Mary with a pleading look in her eyes, and she knew what her answer would be, even if Alice hadn't actually asked the question. She had been of age when she died, so that wasn't an issue. She was a spirit, so magic was in her nature, and she never dealt with this 'Wizarding World' while in life, so they didn't know of her.

****

Alice left the bank while rubber her sour wrist. While the muggle and magical world might appear different at first sight, they both had a lot of similarities. One such similarity was copious amounts of paperwork, both she and Mary had been there for over an hour filling things in, making everything official. The appropriate forms would be filed with the Ministry of Magic later that same day, so that was everything sorted. She would be staying at one of the Potter properties, but Sharpclaw said that he should be able to get one for a reasonable price before the years end for if the Potters catch on to what they were doing and evict them.

Now, with a bag full of money and Mary astralized at her side, Alice decided to get some shopping done. She never had money to herself before and wanted to see what she could get. She dismissed the robe shop as they would be impractical and she would probably have so show her scars to anyone in there. She would probably go to the muggle world to buy her clothes, possibly getting some clothes for Mary as well.

She spent quite a lot of time in the potions shop, buying scales and cauldron along with a variety of potions ingredients. She was surprised to find that the scales were more accurate than the muggle equivalent since so many things were so far behind. When she asked the shopkeeper about that she was told it was due to Potions being a very exact subject, where accuracy was incredibly important, especially so in the more advanced potions.

After some thought, Alice ended up getting the crystal phials that had unbreakable charms on them, so as not to risk anything if dropping one. She was a little surprised that the shopkeeper said they weren't standard, more so when the shopkeeper said the charm was supposed to be pretty easy to cast.

When she learned that wands were supposedly necessary to cast spells, she got directions to the wand shop. She wasn't sure why they were said to be necessary, since she had been using magic since she was eight, and that was a year ago. Anyways, this lead her to Ollivander's.

When she found the shop she was pretty sure that it wasn't supposed to be in the state that it was, the shop was narrow and shabby looking, with peeling gold letters proclaiming that it had sold 'Fine Wands' since three hundred and eighty-two BC. Though what had caught her attention was that a part of the wall that looked like it was supposed to have a window display was missing.

Alice pushed the door open, a tinkling bell ringing somewhere deep inside when she did so. The inside was tiny, much smaller that all of the other shops which had been magically expanded somehow. It was empty but for a single, a rather spindly chair.

"Good Afternoon." Said a soft voice from behind Alice. She was so surprised that she unconsciously projected a copy of Mary's knife, she was getting better with that, and lashed out as he spun around. The old man that had snuck up on them showed surprisingly quick reflexes as he dodged Alice's swing and took a step back with a chuckle.

"My, my, that's the second most violent reaction I've ever gotten from surprising a customer." The man, presumably Ollivander, said with amusement. "Perhaps I should rethinking how I introduce myself, but alas, it's to much fun."

Alice raised her visible eyebrow. "What was the most violent reaction?" Ollivander simply looked at the hole in his wall that lead outside. "Ah."

Ollivander looked curiously at Alice. "I was not expecting you for another few years, Alice Potter."

"Is there a problom with getting my wand early?"

"None at all, most wait until right before going to school, but there is nothing that says that you can't get your wand. I've had to yell at so many people who try and outlaw it." That last part was more muttered to himself. "Now, I remember when your parents came to me to purchase their wands. Your father's was of mahogany, eleven inches and rather pliable, and was excellent for transfiguration. Your mother's, on the other hand, was willow, then and a quarter inches, and was good at charms."

Ollivander, who had been getting closer and closer as he spoke, suddenly disappeared off amongst the boxes that were shelved all around the shop. He pulled out one here and there, mumbling to himself about the different characteristics of each wand, though he kept looking up and around.

"Ms. Potter, were you perhaps followed here? I keep sensing things around me, but I can't find anything." He managed to see the shock that Alice tried to hide, which lead to him giving a small smile. "I'm perhaps the most magically sensitive you will ever meet unless you meet another wand crafter from a long line of crafters. Wandcrafting is an incredibly magically sensitive art, so we have to be careful."

Alice looked to Marry, who decided to materialize. Though she stayed out of sight from the hole in the wall, and not in sight of the door either.

Ollivander didn't really show much surprise at the women appearing out of thin air, merely muttering, "Interesting, interesting." before going back to pulling out boxes. At one point, he paused and looked curiously at Mary, before pulling down more boxes.

"Right, let us get started. Let's see how a traditionally English wand suits you first. Ten inches, oak with dragon heart-string. Go on, give it a wave." Alice looked at the wand in her hand, before with a shrug gave it a wave.

Nothing happened.

Alice had felt the wand try and pull at her magic, much like when she cast her spells, but it didn't feel like it could process the magic. The wand was snatched out of her hand and another put in its place, this one mango and unicorn tail hair this time, and was told to wave it again.

This one reacted badly, causing the chair in the corner to rot from what looked to be necrosis. At that, Ollivander took the wand and set some of the wands he'd collected to the side, muttering about the unicorn's gentle nature not matching though the mango was better than oak. It went on like that, Alice trying a wand, feeling whether it was a good or bad fit, and telling Ollivander, and the stack of wands left to try began to shrink.

Eventually, there was a small stack of Teak wood wands left, but with a variety of different cores. Apparently, these wands had unusual cores, from when Ollivander had only just started making wands and had traveled quite a bit to get the materials.

Unfortunately, none of them got the desired results, causing Ollivander grin. "Well Ms. Potter, you have tried every and that would suit you, but none of them quite fit. Usually, in this case, I would craft a wand for you, but there isn't a single core that would fit you." He then glanced at Mary, his grin growing. "Though I do believe that a hair from your friend over there would match with you quite well."

Mary gave him a look. "If you touch my hair with your hands, you would likely die from the poison I'm made of." If anything that just made him smile even wider. He pointed out that he could simply use magic so he never had to touch the hair. The two girls had a mental conversation before they decided to go with it. Ollivander carefully used his magic to have a hair magically removed from her and placed in a crystal phile. He told them to return tomorrow and he would have the wand crafted.

With that finished Alice left through the hole in the wall as Mary astralized, before they headed to the Apothecary. She decided to get a fair amount of ingredients, so she could experiment and try out what she could.

With that finished she had gone to the bookstore, hoping to find some books on spell crafting so she could improve her three spells. Asking around she had managed to find what people referred to as Arithmancy, the magic of numbers. Apparently, while it is very useful for the creation of spells, which she was wanting, it was also used to mathematically predict the future. She would probably look into that.

She also managed to get a copy of the first year's standard books, except for the defense class as that didn't have a standard with it's rotating teaching staff. She also grabbed a bunch of potions books, even more books on poisons, and preparation techniques. Since Miranda Goshawk wrote the standard book of spells, she decided to go ahead and buy up to seventh in the Standard Book of Spells series. She also grabbed a few of the history books, just to see if they had anything interesting in them.

Some of her largest purchases were on magical theory, as she wanted to get a better understanding of how magic was supposed to work. If she did that then she would be able to improve on what she had. Amongst the books was one call 'Magecraft; what makes it different then Wizardry', it looked interesting from what she flicked through. It basically said that there were two different types of magic, wizardry and the rare form called Magecraft. Magecraft was supposedly vastly more difficult to master and much more dangerous, and what caught her attention was the mention of a painful feeling that is felt when using it. It was something that she had felt when using her spells, though she had gotten used to it by now.

She ended off the book pile with a bunch of random books that didn't have anything connected to that list that she managed to get her hands on, but they all looked to either by useful or simply interesting. She got two books on Divination, four on Ancient Runes, and two on mind magics called Occlumency and Legilimency.

Naturally, she decided to get a trunk after that, as she really needed to have somewhere to put all of her books. Naturally she didn't get the standard trunk as that was without magic, instead, she got one with an expanded inside and multiple compartments, that would open differently depending on the key that was used to unlock it. She was quite happy when she found out that the keys were not actually magical, it was the lock so that meant that she could easily project the keys and use them as she wished. Though she did keep the keys on the off chance that she somehow forgot the blueprints that she learned from the keys.

With everything finally bought, she headed to the Leaky Cauldron and paid them to use the Floo. The idea of the thing was odd, but she managed to use it without anything more than a stumble. With the name spoken she found that she was now in one of the Potter Manors.

She felt, tired... Everything that had happened over the day, learning of her fame, finding out that her parents were alive and didn't want her, that she had a brother she had never meet, all of it weighed on her mind now that she was alone with no one but Mary.

She felt Mary pull her into a hug, setting the two of the down on a couch, as Alice let it all out. Mary was there for her, holding the younger girl as she cried away. She whispered to the younger girl, telling her how everything would be fine, and how she would never lever her.

The two of them eventually fell asleep like that, holding each other while sitting on a couch in the Potter mansion loft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giving credit to Lupine Horror for the Potter plot line, as it was Lupine's creation.


End file.
